


love is just a word that ties the gap between you and i

by faithseed



Category: Ready or Not (2019)
Genre: F/M, Possibly Unrequited Love, alex who?? in this house we stan only one brother, idk im just really losin it rn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-05
Updated: 2020-02-05
Packaged: 2021-02-28 03:42:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,035
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22577251
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/faithseed/pseuds/faithseed
Summary: Daniel doesn't trust Alex's future bride to be. He wants to protect his brother just as he always had.Yet, a visit to their home leaves his plans of tearing them apart at the door.
Relationships: Daniel Le Domas/Grace Le Domas
Comments: 11
Kudos: 108





	love is just a word that ties the gap between you and i

**Author's Note:**

> God??? Are you there?? It's been so long since I've written fic like this for characters that aren't mine, but I've fallen into hell and I just really miss them. I hope this is good and I hope you all like it, please tell me what you think and if you can just like, give me you thots :)

“Daniel.”

Daniel snaps from his daze and blinks once, then twice, turning to look at his brother standing before him. He feels a little dizzy, like time had stopped still and suddenly came rushing back to him. “What?”

Alex frowns and gives him a look- a look he knows too well and completely brushes off as unwarranted concern more than annoyance. He hadn’t been drinking, not yet at least, but right at this very moment he wishes he had. 

“I want you to meet my girlfriend, Grace.” 

Daniel turns back to the blonde haired woman, beautiful and plain and eager to meet him and he feels himself being pulled back into the trance. Something about her is different- something that he doesn’t see in his daily life. She smiles at him and it’s genuine and nervous and there’s a small gleam of innocence and naivety in her eyes. It’s almost foreign to him and he isn’t sure how to process it.

She wasn’t like the others, he realizes. Not like his wife, Charity. Not like his brother-in-law, Fitch. Two people who were after their money and status so desperately that they would sign their souls over just to make it happen. 

Grace was different.  _ She wasn’t like them _ . And he could tell.

“You didn’t tell me she was so beautiful.” Daniel speaks up finally, smiling at her as he regains his composure. He’s holding back, but he desperately wishes to know her. Why couldn’t he have met her before he got married? 

He thinks back to when he talked to Alex over the phone before his little visit. He thinks of how wrong he had been about Grace and he wants to take back everything he said. Maybe he had been drunk. Maybe he had been thinking of his unfortunate luck with Charity. 

_ “Daniel, she’s perfect. I’m going to ask her to marry me.”  _

_ Daniel sits in his chair, glass in hand as he holds the phone to his ear. He’s listening, but at those words, his mind wanders. He wants to protect Alex, just like all those years before. He wants to protect him from the fear and hardship should he get married and his wife has to draw a card. If she draws that card-  _

_ “Daniel, did you hear me?” Alex speaks up over the silence.  _

_ “Yeah.” Daniel responds after taking a quick drink. “Are you sure you want to do that? That means you’d have to come back home. You’ll have to get married at the house and she has to pull a card, and then she has to play the fucking game. It’s tradition.” He mocks, rolling his eyes and sinking further into his chair. He doesn’t want to think about this. He’d rather think about anything else, just not this. “You got out of this and you want to come back? Do you plan on telling her any of this?”  _

_ Now it’s Alex’s turn to be quiet, the silence on the phone is deafening and Daniel can’t stand it anymore. He wants to scream at him to say something, anything that would ease his mind, but he doesn’t. Then Alex speaks, but it only makes Daniel’s chest tighten even more. “No, I can’t. She wouldn’t stay. I love her, Daniel and I want to be with her. And she wants to get married.”  _

_ “Then fucking tell her you don’t want to. If you aren’t ready for what happens, then you shouldn’t do it.” He doesn’t care about her, what it would do to her and that’s the truth of it, but he cares about Alex. If something were to happen it would devastate him, especially if he’s claiming to love her so much. “Are you sure she isn’t after your money? After the big, lavious, rich lifestyle everyone dreams of?” _

_ He thinks of Charity again. At some point, he would’ve said he loved her. Maybe, in another life, they would’ve been happy together, but Charity had only been after one thing. When he told her what it means to be a Le Domas, she hadn’t blinked. She hadn’t flinched or second guessed anything. Charity fit right into the family before it even happened.  _

_ How could anyone be willing to die just for power and wealth? _

_ Alex is distressed when he answers. “No, she’s not. She’s not like them. Grace wouldn’t care if our family was dirt poor, she loves me. She wants a family- she wants to be apart of a family. That’s why she wants to get married. I-” Alex pauses for a breath and lets it out sorrowfully. “Daniel, I want to be her family.”  _

_ Why would anyone want to join our fucked up family? Daniel mutters to himself and takes another drink. He doesn’t want to think about this anymore. Alex could be at risk of endangering himself and it’s up to Daniel to make sure he’s safe. To make sure he’s not falling into something that could have repercussions that neither of them can stop. _

_ He had to find out for himself. _

Now that he was here, Grace was as lovely as Alex had described to him. And as he spends more time with the two,  _ with Grace alone _ , he can’t help but feel a way he never felt with Charity. And suddenly he’s scared. He would never want her to join the family. He would never risk her drawing that card or wanting to back out once it began. 

Grace was far too  _ good _ . She cared and loved and had so much more life in her that none in the Le Domas family had. Hell, Daniel didn’t believe he had even a shred of it. Yet, all at once, he wanted nothing more than to be loved and cared for by this woman his brother wanted to marry. Perhaps it was a feeling he had been deprived of and it didn’t have to be Grace, he could have just wanted the experience in of itself. 

But Grace was different. Grace seemed to be the only one capable of filling him of that feeling- of experiencing what it meant to be normal- which was probably because he had never met anyone like her.

He needed a fucking drink. A strong one. 

Being an alcoholic had its perks and he might never say it out loud, but god damn is it the best decision he ever made. Now he could shamelessly flirt with Grace and spill out all the compliments without feeling bad or guilty for falling for his brother's girlfriend. He could do it knowing that both she and his brother would brush it off and blame it on the intoxicating drink filling his system. 

And he’d be able to tell himself without fail that his heart wasn’t pounding horribly every time she smiles or laughs at the stupid things he says. He could move on, like this was a school boys crush that would be over when he grew up. 

Another day passes, and then another day. It doesn’t seem like his crush would be fading any time soon. In fact, it was only growing worse the more he spent with her. Sometimes Alex would be there, most times, he was not. He thinks Grace is growing ever wary of him, but he can only hope that isn’t the case. 

“Daniel.” 

Grace is leaning over him, hand gently touching his cheek. There’s mild concern in her eyes and it takes everything in him not to roll his eyes. He had fallen asleep and she had covered him with a scratchy throw blanket. 

Daniel doesn’t sit up and doesn’t move, but his eyes search around for a moment and he listens carefully. Alex isn’t in the house. It was just the two of them. Maybe this was his chance; maybe he still had time to change things. “I’m fine.” He speaks, his throat just as scratchy as the fabric covering him. 

“Are you sure?” She questions quietly, face turning towards the empty bottle resting on its side on top the worn and stained coffee table. “I appreciate you coming out this way just to meet me, I really do, but don’t you think maybe you could lay off the drinking?” 

Daniel sits up now, slowly and without averting his gaze. Grace is just as slow as she moves away, sitting down on the couch beside him, watching him carefully. Maybe it’s his own depravity and lack of self control, or the influence of his own heart that beat solely for her, but there’s a moment he wishes she was his. A moment where he wanted to switch places with his brother and take the risk himself. 

He takes in the blue of her eyes, the curve of her nose, the taste of her lips. 

He had moved forward without thinking, kissing her slow like he hadn’t meant to do it in the first place. In some sense, that was true; he hadn’t meant to do it, but he’d be lying if he said he hadn’t thought about it. 

Grace pushes back - not hard, not out of anger or fear. She stares at him, blue eyes now narrow and trying to read him. “What are you doing? Are you drunk?” 

“Do you want me to be?” He asks almost immediately, genuinely curious how she would answer. 

She doesn’t answer, however, just stares at him, examining his face for any reason to be mad at him. She must not have been able to find one, since she continued to sit there in silence. Daniel wanted to do it again, to see if she’d fight him, but then he felt horrible the second the thought entered his head and he pushed it completely from his mind. 

“Do you love him?” Daniel asks instead, it’s a much easier question that doesn’t risk one losing any moral goodness that they have left. 

Grace blinks now, like she hadn’t been expecting the question. “Yes, of course I do.” 

He nods and leans back, not really sure what sort of answer he had been expecting, wishing he had another drink. “You know our family is a little fucked up, right? You could find so much better.” 

“Better.” Grace laughs and even though it’s more on the sarcastic side, he finds it nice to hear. “I know you are worried about Alex, but I’m not going to hurt him.” 

Now it’s his turn to laugh and he hadn’t meant it to be so mockingly cruel. “Oh, yes you will.” Daniel stands up now, letting the blanket fall to the floor and turning his back to Grace. He was definitely going to need another drink now. 

“I’m sorry, do you have a problem with me?” She’s angry now and her voice has the slightest tremble. Fuck, it must feel like he’s torturing her.

He feels like the one that's being tortured. Daniel realizes now that he isn’t as worried for Alex as he had been. Now he was worried about Grace and it dawned on him that he didn’t want to save his brother; he wanted to save her. Alex would be fine, he still had a family to go home to, he had all this money. 

But Grace? She didn’t have any of that. 

He imagined running away with her now, out of reach of anything the Le Domas’ had touched. To hide her from the horrors he’s carried with him since he was a child. Yet, he kept his mouth shut about his family and about the rituals and turned back to her, smiling innocently. “No, I like you just fine.” 

The front door opens, signaling that Alex was home and Daniel should shut up about whatever he’s feeling for Grace and fill his system with as much alcohol as possible to drown out the sight of the two lovebirds. It made him sick to his stomach, only because he wishes that was him instead. 

Maybe he was different than the rest of his family. Instead of doing anything and everything possible to get in, he wanted nothing more than to get  _ out _ . Don’t get him wrong, he loved the money, he just hated everything else that came with the Le Domas name.


End file.
